


in the grand scheme, it's all just chance

by hyucksuckle



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Meet-Cute, Paramedic - Freeform, i think idk, idk how to tag, johnjae paramedics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26311996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyucksuckle/pseuds/hyucksuckle
Summary: Jaehyun rested his hand atop his, “seriously, it’s going to hurt. You don’t know how much it’s helping you.”“It’s fine, Jaehyun, I trust you,” the heavy tone behind his words contrasted his dulcet voice.Jaehyun, caught in the moment, wondered if this was how his voice had always been, hiding underneath the creakiness that came with coughing up water.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 11
Kudos: 100





	in the grand scheme, it's all just chance

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from lucky love by michael seyer <3
> 
> [spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/0Fbyu0CzsClu9N00gGwAmi?si=4uvxX_MbQZeM0D5qsyrjfQ) [youtube](https://youtu.be/zv8fu8NhCTQ) [apple music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/lucky-love/1345169827?i=1345170170)

Ever since Jaehyun secured a job as a paramedic in November, he had believed that by the time summer came he wouldn’t recall any season specific training. His biggest fear was that he’d be completely lost when he faced a drowning situation, which would ultimately lead to the death of a patient. Luckily, he applied to the same company as Johnny Seo, and Johnny assured him that it wouldn’t happen as long as they were partners.

On Jaehyun’s official first day Johnny rambled about how there were procedures they’ll use often, like CPR, and mechanics they'll rarely use, like the traction splint. “I’ll make sure you never forget anything. Trust me,” Johnny added for reassurance, “I’ll keep you on your toes, Jae.” 

Johnny's overbearing perfume is what Jaehyun really recalls about that morning (it was too strong, so strong that he barely knew what scent it was supposed to be), but he could admit that Johnny kept his word. Before they arrived at any scene, Johnny would pitch trivia questions at him left and right. Jaehyun thanked every deity, dead or alive, everytime Johnny clarified something right before they turned on lights and sirens or grabbed the jump bag from the cabinet behind the passenger seat. Without Johnny, Jaehyun would’ve given up by now.

Jaehyun’s favorite thing about Johnny was that he didn’t have a God complex. Most paramedics that Jaehyun had met always behaved as if he, having less experience, was beneath them. He somewhat expected that from Johnny, since he had received the Paramedic of the Year award a year prior to Jaehyun completing the program. Johnny had never shown any signs of arrogance, not even the first time Jaehyun had to use an airway adjunct and forgot how the sizes of the King Tube equate to height. Johnny was modest when he reminded Jaehyun that unstable patients can’t go on the KED board or adults can’t use pediatric AED pads. “It’s okay, Jae,” he’d say when Jaehyun apologized, face heated in embarrassment, “you’ll forget things sometimes.”

“What’s ineffective when the patient is still in the water?” Johnny questioned Jaehyun while he clicked on the overhead lights and started up the siren.

It was Jaehyun’s turn to ride in the cabin with the patients today. When dispatch contacted their ambulance for someone who suffered a near fatal drowning, Jaehyun didn’t have that same voice that nagged him about how easily he would forget to use the CPAP machine from six months ago, he had a calm demeanor when he took in a deep breath and pulled the large gloves over his hands, “compressions,” he answered Johnny as if it were written with permanent ink on his brain.

“The water rescue should be done by the time we get there,” Johnny subtly noted with the knowledge that Jaehyun had a fear of deep waters. Jaehyun wasn’t a very good swimmer, but his height managed to save him most times, since they were only expected to do a water rescue if the water was five feet or lower.

“We’re about fifteen minutes away,” Johnny always seemed to know where they were going, even when they were in the middle of woods driving in circles around numerous summer camps. Granted, Johnny had been on this assignment for years, he always volunteered to monitor the outskirts of the bigger summer camps in case there was an emergency. Since Johnny was extra attentive when it came to pediatric patients (Jaehyun deeply admired his ability to feel empathy anytime a child had a fever or broke a bone), he was always the first person chosen for the job.

Jaehyun turned the stereo all the way up, though it was still barely audible over the loud sounds the ambulance made as Johnny took the dirt path that, despite opposition from the GPS, would lead directly to the lake. His eyes followed the glimpses of overgrown maple trees with leaves that glistened in the midday sunlight. Birds were floating dangerously close to his rolled down window, and he even caught a deer or two running to hide due to the heavy sound of the ambulance racing through the woods. The air smelled like acorns, but as they got closer to the camps the more the aroma shifted into that of grilled food and freshly cut grass.

Every campsite looked _exactly_ the same, Jaehyun couldn’t tell where one ended and another began. A majority of the children were preoccupied with games to realize that someone could possibly be dead, which was both good and bad. It was good because it wouldn’t go over well with parents if they found out their child watched someone take their last breath at summer camp. In contrast, they weren’t expecting an ambulance, with the siren blasting, to appear out of the woods. The screaming, scattering children nearly gave Jaehyun an anxiety attack, as if he were the one behind the wheel. Johnny, respectfully, slowed down enough for Jaehyun to feel at ease.

The lake was on the far side of the camps, past the screening area for sit-in movies and all of the mini parks with the swings and slides and whatnot. When they arrived, Johnny stopped the truck about a hundred feet away from where the lifeguard was doing compressions on the patient.

Jaehyun observed a handful of red flags, and the first was that the girl didn’t compress deeply enough. He figured she must’ve been the only one who did CPR, and it had been roughly twenty minutes. She didn’t have a pocket mask, which meant she didn’t give any rescue breaths (if she followed the standard protocol of no mouth-to-mouth resuscitation). She did, however, have the AED connected, yet the patient was nearly soaked.

Jaehyun was hoping that there would be another group of responders there with them, but for the first time since he started, it was only him and Johnny. No additional firemen or medics to help with anything.

He started by grabbing towels and throwing the jump bag on the stretcher. After a few months of working together, him and Johnny had a certain system. He knew Johnny would put the heart monitor next to the jump bag and bring the whole thing out of the cabin as quickly as possible to begin questioning the few bystanders on scene.

Relief visibly washed over the lifeguard’s face as she moved aside to let Jaehyun take over. He checked the pulse of the unconscious male and watched his chest to check for breathing while the lifeguard used the towels to dry off his chest where the AED pads had to go.

The patient was still pulseless, so Jaehyun began to compress on the midline of his chest. Johnny fished out the mask after a few seconds and tossed it to Jaehyun, who felt a bit of resistance every time he pushed down. He assumed it had to be normal because the water was coming back up. After the first round of thirty compressions, Jaehyun placed the mask over the patient’s mouth and delivered one rescue breath. Before he could give the second one, the patient’s body jolted and he violently spewed out water.

Jaehyun gave him a few seconds to catch his breath before posing some standard questions to check his level of consciousness. “What’s your name?” 

“Donghyuck.” 

His voice was so hoarse that Jaehyun didn’t want to ask any more questions. Between water filling up his lungs to having someone push in on his chest to get it out he was practically radiating pain. Sparing Donghyuck questions would probably be more beneficial, but Jaehyun had to make sure he followed protocol. “Can you tell me where you are, Donghyuck?”

“Camp,” he paused, “unless I died.” Donghyuck coughed forcefully. Small droplets of water ran down his mouth and he breathed faster. “Am I dead?”

At first, Jaehyun nearly rolled his eyes at what he believed were antics. However, the following seconds consisted of Donghyuck breathing faster and faster, and it was clear he was borderline hysteric. The possibility of him hyperventilating, or even having a secondary drowning from the air building up on the remaining water in his lungs, rose with every shallow inhalation.

Jaehyun himself was nearly in a panic. He wasn’t really one to comfort people (he didn’t even know what the protocol was when it came dealing with anxiety), that was Johnny’s job, and at this moment, it seemed like Johnny was lightyears away. The fear in Donghyuck’s eyes made him physically shiver.

“Donghyuck, look at me,” he reached forward to hold the boy’s shoulders in hopes that he would come to his senses.

Thankfully Johnny emerged with the CPAP machine and strapped it around Donghyuck’s head before he could protest. _Thank God,_ Jaehyun thought as he attached the pulse oximeter to Donghyuck’s finger. It read eighty-nine.

“Jae, is he A and O four?” Johnny asked, putting the machine on the correct setting.

Jaehyun hadn’t done a lot of the things he was supposed to, including checking Donghyuck’s spine for injury before letting Johnny place the CPAP over his face. He didn’t realize he skipped the entire primary assessment. “I’m not really sure, sorry,” his voice carried a bit of sympathy as he reached back to palpate the cervical area of Donghyuck’s spine. Luckily, he didn’t feel any deformities that would have occurred if the spine had been unaligned. 

Johnny took his stethoscope and listened to the right lower area of Donghyuck’s ribs, then the left, then he moved up to repeat the same with the upper area. “It’s okay,” Johnny wrote something down on his glove. “Did he tell you anything?”

“His name is Donghyuck, and he knows he’s at camp,” Jaehyun glanced at Donghyuck, who was taking deep, shaky breaths and had a death grip on the mask covering his face.

Drowning had to be painful, Jaehyun wished he could provide Donghyuck with pain medication before they even reached the cabin, but he didn’t know if he was allergic to anything. Actually, he didn’t know anything about him at all aside from his name. He felt a little embarrassed knowing that Johnny would’ve been ten steps further if he was the one assigned with doing the assessment, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He had a job to do and wasting extra time on said job could end terribly.

“Can you tell me what day of the week it is?” Jaehyun asked, pulling out a pen and notepad (Johnny wrote notes on his gloves, and Jaehyun had tried the method. After countless times of forgetting the vital signs after throwing the gloves off, he knew that the paper to pen method worked best for him).

Donghyuck thought for a minute. “It's Saturday,” his voice was croaky and barely audible over the humming of the machine, but Jaehyun heard him nonetheless.

Jaehyun scribbled on his paper, “how many months are in a year?”

“Twelve,” Donghyuck, whilst inflamed, added a snarky, “what is this? Twenty-one questions?”

Between the comment and Jaehyun’s embarrassed expression, Johnny stifled a laugh.

“I have to make sure you didn't suffer an injury that could have affected your level of awareness.”

Donghyuck’s grip on the mask loosened, before he dropped his hand altogether, “I almost drowned,” another deep, seemingly painful, breath drew out of him, “it's not like I feel from a tree.”

“Well, I wasn't here. How would I know that you didn't fall from a tree into the water?” Jaehyun jokes, smiling a little when he heard Donghyuck's strained laugh. He was well aware that he was wasting scene time at this point, but something about Donghyuck made him feel like it was worth it.

“Hey Jae,” Johnny called as he went to clear the stretcher, “whenever you’re done with your weird attempt at flirting we have to take him to the hospital.”

Jaehyun tore his eyes from Donghyuck to stare at Johnny in disbelief. He wasn’t _flirting_. It’s common decency to converse with a patient (nevermind the scattered blush on his cheeks). Jaehyun wasn’t in the wrong for wanting to make the experience as least awkward as possible. Johnny was just teasing.

Once the stretcher was void of all belongings Jaehyun returned his attention to Donghyuck. “Can you walk to the stretcher?” Donghyuck checked behind him, staring at the few meters with unease before shaking his head.

“Okay, well,” Jaehyun chewed on the thought of carrying him by himself, or asking Johnny to help. With Johnny it would be easier, not to say Donghyuck would be hard to lift up but two is always better than one. Yet, Jaehyun knew he shouldn’t waste more scene time begging Johnny to do something he knew he could do by himself to save a few seconds of awkwardness. “I can carry you,” Jaehyun spoke softly, a tingle of bashfulness in his voice, “but you’d have to hold that machine.”

“What if I drop it?” Jaehyun wasn’t good at picking up jokes, but the fact that Donghyuck was joking was clear in his smile. It was baffling how someone who went through what Donghyuck did would be in the mood for jokes (Jaehyun wouldn’t be the one stopping him from making them either).

“You break it, you buy it.”

“Does that apply to you carrying me?” 

Jaehyun laughed, “Sure, I’m pretty sure there’s a law somewhere that’s against dropping patients.”

Donghyuck smiled and grabbed the machine, “I wouldn’t mind suing my pretty boy paramedic,” he laced his arms around Jaehyun’s neck, oblivious to Jaehyun’s carmine ears.

Even though he had been dried, Donghyuck was still damp, but it was overlooked as Jaehyun slid an arm under both of his legs and the other on his upper back. Both parties avoided eye contact as Donghyuck was carried to, then placed on, the stretcher. Cautiously, Jaehyun assisted Johnny in wheeling the stretcher back to the cabin of the ambulance. 

“I didn’t strap him in,” Jaehyun announced before Johnny loaded it on the automatic fastening system.

Even after working together for as long as they had, Johnny didn’t show any exasperation at Jaehyun’s comment. “You can do it once we get him loaded, it’s fine,” Johnny pressed the stretcher back for the system to take over and lock it into place, “and add the EKG.”

Jaehyun took a mental note. When the stretcher came to a complete stop he climbed into the back and instantly reached into the side of the heart monitor to pull out the leads he needed to attach to Donghyuck. He lined them up accordingly on his chest and turned the monitor on once the leads were secure. 

Donghyuck’s vitals were stable, his heart rate and blood pressure both surprisingly normal after what he had endured. His oxygenation seemed a bit low, but it was a given considering the circumstances.

“Priority one?” Johnny posed as Jaehyun set the monitor to take a blood pressure every few minutes. Drowning was typically a priority one, but depending on who was on the ambulance it could be determined differently. Both Johnny and Jaehyun knew advanced life support, so they could establish their own rules for the most part. Johnny would make this a priority two. Jaehyun was sure he could manage Donghyuck with no sirens, just flashing lights and an extra few miles per hour on the streets.

As if on cue Donghyuck let out another cough, gasping for a few seconds afterwards. Jaehyun flicked his eyes to the heart monitor, watching Donghyuck’s heart rate speed up before slowly crawling back down to normal.

Since Jaehyun hadn’t been on the scene of a true drowning before, he began to doubt himself. Learning was one thing, but working in the field was an entire different ball game. He always related this back to how easy it was doing CPR on the mannequins, but how much he exerted himself doing it real life. It wasn’t just him he had to worry about, it was Donghyuck. He would have to track his every move to make sure he didn’t drown secondarily or collapse a lung from the CPAP.

Jaheyun _had_ to do it, though. Not just to prove that Johnny could trust him to manage something as simply as drowning, but because, as absurd as it may seem, he wanted to talk with Donghyuck. Something told him that Donghyuck wanted to talk to him, too. _You can handle it,_ Jaehyun thought to himself. “Priority two.”

Johnny nodded and ushered Jaehyun to sit down so he could close the cabin door. He jumped in the front, checking the GPS for directions and a quick traffic update. “I’d say the traffic is about priority four, but I’ll do my best. He seems pretty stable.”

“Okay,” Jaehyun wrote it in his notebook for the report to the hospital. A sudden thought crossed Jaehyun’s mind regarding how drowning victims were more susceptible to hypothermia. Since Donghyuck had been swimming, he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his shorts were pretty wet. Outside wasn’t as cold as the ambulance, and the ambulance itself wasn’t extremely cold, but Jaehyun (like most people in his career) would rather be safe than sorry. He reached over and pulled his sweatshirt off the front seat.

He turned to Donghyuck who, once again, was fumbling with the mask. “You shouldn’t mess with that,” he warned, uncertain what could happen if Donghyuck accidentally disassembled something.

“Can I take it off?”

Jaehyun checked the oxygen level on the heart monitor. Donghyuck was exchanging at ninety-five now, which would mean he was eligible for the more comfortable non-rebreather mask. Yet, Donghyuck would be more likely to aspirate with that mask on than he was with the CPAP. “The CPAP is your best option, there’s a greater chance you could aspirate with a different mask. Your oxygen is good enough for the non-rebreather but-”

“Your name is Jae, right?” Donghyuck interrupted.

Jaehyun was caught off guard, not because Donghyuck picked up his name (after Johnny used it a few times), but by the realization that he hadn’t introduced himself properly. It’s not like it mattered one way or another, but Jaehyun felt rather coy about it.

“It’s Jaehyun, actually.”

“Okay, Jaehyun, I didn’t go to school with you, you know. I have half of an idea what you’re talking about.”

Jaehyun laughed gently, “half?”

“Well, yeah. I know what aspiration means, I mean I’m pretty sure,” he sat up, face coated in dubiety, “I’m pretty sure it means like, coughing up water, in context, stop me if I’m wrong.”

“You’re right so far.”

“Then why’d you stop me?”

Certainly, Donghyuck was pulling Jaehyun’s leg, but that didn’t mean Jaehyun wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of embarrassment. “Sorry,” with a blush creeping down through his ears, he ushered Donghyuck to continue.

“Right, so aspirating is coughing up water, CPAP is this thing, and the other mask is smaller and would probably make me look less ridiculous.”

“You were right on being half right, do you want me to make you whole right?” 

Donghyuck playfully rolled his eyes, “that makes no sense, but please enlighten me.”

“The non-rebreather _is_ smaller. It doesn’t help as much as CPAP, so we use it to help moderate breathing problems. CPAP stands for continuous positive air pressure,” he paused to make sure Donghyuck was listening, even though the information probably wouldn’t be useful to him after today. Once Donghyuck nodded in affirmation, Jaehyun continued. “Basically, it pushes air into your lungs so they don’t have to work as hard after being filled with water. Which reminds me,” he reached into his pocket for a glove, “I have to check your lung sounds.”

“And here I was wondering if you were ever gonna do your job,” Donghyuck leaned forward as Jaehyun approached the side of the stretcher. 

Jaehyun auscultated Donghyuck’s upper back bilaterally, and did the same just above where his ribs ended. There were a few crackles, but not enough to bring up the concern that Donghyuck might secondarily drown. He wrote it into his notepad before dispersing his gloves in the bin by the side door. While checking his lungs, Jaehyun felt Donghyuck’s body was quite cold (or maybe he psyched himself out for a reason to give the boy his sweater).

“Here,” Jaehyun willed himself to maintain eye contact as Donghyuck took his sweater, “you seem cold.”

Donghyuck took the sweater, running his fingers over Jaehyun’s embroidered name. “How exactly am I supposed to put this on over this machine?”

“Good question.” Jaehyun would have to remove the mask from Donghyuck’s face, help him into the sweater, and put the mask back on. It would only take a minute or two. Still, Jaehyun was weary of putting Donghyuck in more pain. “We have to remove the mask for a few seconds, and it’s going to hurt.”

“That’s fine,” Donghyuck meddled with the mask.

Jaehyun rested his hand atop his, “seriously, it’s going to hurt. You don’t know how much it’s helping you.”

“It’s fine, Jaehyun, I trust you,” the heavy tone behind his words contrasted his dulcet voice. Jaehyun, caught in the moment, wondered if this was how his voice had always been, hiding underneath the creakiness that came with coughing up water.

Donghyuck took his hand from the strap so that Jaehyun could unfasten and remove it. Immediately after Donghyuck had been void of the mask, his breathing sped up the slightest bit. Jaehyun swiftly pulled the sweater over his head, assisting Donghyuck in putting his arms into the sleeves. When Donghyuck was completely enveloped in the sweater, he subconsciously grabbed for the mask. With the help of Jaehyun, it was soon fastened back behind his head.

Jaehyun gave Donghyuck a beat to catch his breath. He watched as he closed his eyes to focus in one his breathing. It was for the greater good that Donghyuck had a sweater on now, however Jaehyun couldn’t help feeling bad at his slightly worse condition (especially because he was showing signs of recovery).

“Are you okay?” Jaehyun asked as Donghyuck’s vitals slowly began to normalize themselves. Donghyuck raised his hand with a thumb’s up. 

Jaehyun peeked out the window. Johnny hadn’t lied about the priority four traffic, it would be at least twenty more minutes before he would have to call the hospital. Jaehyun figured he could take Donghyuck’s advice and do his job, which started with the run report.

“Donghyuck,” he received a hum in affirmation, “how old are you.”

“Old enough to flirt with you, why?”

Donghyuck was, for lack of better words, bold. Jaehyun was undeniably flushed red, “That’s cute and all, but I need to know you age. For medical reasons.”

Donghyuck locked his hands together and tilted his head on them, “so you think I’m cute?” He (aggressively) batted his eyelashes together. 

“Obviously _I’m_ the cute one. _You_ want to flirt with _me,_ remember,” the initial meekness Jaehyun exerted finally began to dissolve.

“Touché,” Donghyuck giggled, “I’m twenty. How old are you?”

Jaehyun raised an eyebrow in a light-hearted manner, “now who’s playing twenty-one questions?”

“I miss when you were, like, scared to break me five minutes ago,” he flopped dramatically on the headrest behind him, “take me back.”

“I’m twenty-three,” Jaehyun smiled, holding back a laugh as Donghyuck rose back up, “when’s your birthday?”

“Today, actually.”

“Really? Happy birthday.”

Donghyuck released another airy giggle, “it’s not my birthday. Are you just gullible or do you trust me too much already?”

Jaehyun, feeling a tad bit humiliated, shrugged it off, “apparently a bit of both.” He took his eyes away from Donghyuck to peek at his vitals on the monitor. The last blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen level, were all stable.

“June sixth,” Donghyuck commented after some time had passed.

“What’s your level of pain on a ten scale, ten being the worst.”

“Like a five.”

Jaehyun scoffed.

“What?” Donghyuck posed, “do you have mirror-touch synesthesia?”

“No, it’s just,” Jaehyun let his train of thought catch up so that he could choose his words wisely. Donghyuck had experienced a horrible incident that could have ended badly. Fortunately, it didn’t. Still, drowning caused a lot of physical and psychological distress. Jaehyun didn’t want Donghyuck to be in pain, but he knew that he was in more pain than he let off. “Are you sure it’s just a five?”

Donghyuck thought about it for a while. Jaehyun examined him breath in and out quite a few times, closing his eyes again to focus. “Maybe an eight. Or nine. My chest feels heavy, like,” he took a long inhale, “like there’s water on top of the air. At the same time it’s like almost _excruciating_ muscle pain, I think from the CPR.”

Jaehyun attentively wrote every word down. “Thank you for being honest.”

“You can feel the water in your lungs.”

“Yeah?”

Donghyuck seemed surprised that Jaehyun replied, giving off the impression that he was talking to no one in particular. Regardless, he continued, “it’s like drinking water with your lungs, you know? It hurts so bad but you know if you call out only the water will only fill in faster.”

“Do you want to tell me how it happened?” Jaehyun asked, dropping a quick “only if you’re comfortable. They’re gonna want to know at the hospital.”

Donghyuck shrugged, “I dropped a ring my friend gave me and I jumped in to get it. I know it was a lake but I didn’t think they were that deep! Plus, I’m a good swimmer,” he paused, “okay maybe _mediocre_ swimmer. I jumped in and I kept looking and looking and I just couldn’t find it. I came back up for air and I don’t think I was up high enough before I opened my mouth to breathe. Next thing you know, I’m coughing up water in the presence of the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. And I have to wear this face thing which is very unflattering.”

Jaehyun was too indulged in writing down Donghyuck’s account of the events that he nearly missed the ending. He felt the familiar heat begin at the tip of his ears again. 

“You should smile more when you blush, I like the combination with the dimples.”

Donghyuck was too much for his own good, Jaehyun could hardly keep up.

“How long have you been doing this,” Donghyuck asked before Jaeyun could form a coherent thought.

“A few months,” Jaehyun checked the traffic again. It was picking up, meaning he would have to call in the report sooner than later.

Donghyuck came off a bit shocked, “I’d say you’re pretty good.”

Jaehyun laughed, “I’ve done close to nothing. You, on the other hand, could have a full time job in flirting.”

“I’m not flirting to my full potential, you’re just not used to having anyone flirt with you at all.”

“And you know this how?”

“It’s kind of obvious,” he coughed a little, nothing as bad as it had been earlier, “if you were used to being on the receiving end of flirting you most likely wouldn’t be as timid as you are. I call you cute, you're red for three minutes.”

The irony in Jaehyun blushing at the observation was apparent in their shared laugh. When they died down, Jaehyun faintly asked, “are you more used to being on the receiving end or the giving end?”

“Bits of both, but not a lot of either, you know? I don’t flirt often, but when I do it’s kind of an equal push and pull. You’re different though, and different is nice.”

Jaehyun smiled at this, “you’re different, too.” In the short time they had been acquainted Jaehyun found himself being drawn closer and closer to Donghyuck.

“I knew you would say that,” he let out a small laugh, “you’re very cheesy.”

“Ouch,” Jaehyun feigned offense, raising his hands to his chest. “And for the record, the mask doesn’t make you look ridiculous or unflattering. You look as adorable as you do with it off.” 

Seeing Donghyuck’s face spur red was a feat Jaehyun would cherish for a long time.

Out of his peripheral vision, Jaehyun recognized some of the buildings near the hospital. He tore his attention away from Donghyuck to rush the report that they were close by through the phone. He took one last round of vitals and scribbled them onto the paper for Johnny to give the nurse.

The time they had spent back in the cabin together now seemed short lived as Jaehyun watched them pull into the hospital parking lot. For the first time since they were back there, it was complete silence. Knowing that Donghyuck would soon be in the hospital room while Jaehyun filled out the run report was bittersweet. Donghyuck would be getting proper care at the cost of Jaehyun not being able to see him.

Before Jaehyun could process it anymore, Johnny opened the back door. A chill of air washed through them, only affecting Jaehyun since Donghyuck still had his sweater on. 

“I hope Jae didn’t bore you to death,” Johnny jokes, ignorant to the now sullen atmosphere.

“He’s pretty good company,” Donghyuck retaliated brightly.

Jaehyun let a smile ghost his face as he stood to remove the leads from Donghyuck’s chest, now under his sweater. “They’ll put more of these on you.” He felt a tug on his wrist while he turned to roll up the cords, and pivoted back to face him.

“Do you want your sweater back?” Donghyuck asked in a hushed voice.

“You can keep it, I’ll get a new one.”

Johnny cleared his throat, forcing them to look at him. “I think they’re waiting for a drowning victim in there. Maybe it’s just me.”

To avoid further humiliation, Jaehyun checked the straps on the stretcher before lowering it out. He and Johnny wheeled the stretcher from the doors, passed the nurses station, and to the room they had reserved for him. Together, they lifted him and placed him into the hospital bed. Johnny left first, taking the written report to the on-call nurse.

“Do you have to go?” Donghyuck sounded thoroughly sad. Jaehyun felt likewise, having a short, sweet time come to an almost abrupt end.

“I have to do the run report, I’ll be in the building for like an hour. They have a room-”

“Can you stay in here with me?”

Jaehyun looked directly into Donghyuck’s eyes, the sincerity in them different from the confident look he displayed in the ambulance. He reached behind the stretcher, grabbed the laptop from behind the raised headboard, and pulled a chair up to the side of the bed that Donghyuck faced. If he was asked, he would sit and listen to Donghyuck’s voice for hours, even if it was muffled by a face mask.

“I’ll stay here with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you all for reading :D constructive criticism is always welcome <3


End file.
